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A woman arrested in connection with the alleged London and Glasgow car bomb plots has been released without charge. Marwa Asha, 27, was arrested with her husband, Mohammed Asha, 26, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, on the M6 motorway in Cheshire on June 30. The arrests came hours after a burning jeep was driven into the Glasgow airport terminal. The attempted attack followed the discovery of two car bombs in London that had failed to detonate. A Scotland Yard spokesman said the woman was released at 7.40pm yesterday. Muhammad Haneef, an Indian doctor who was arrested in Australia on July 2 in...

Washington : The Al Qaeda network continues to build its base in the "ungoverned spaces" of Pakistan and is as strong as it was in 2001, says a classified document cited by CNN and public testimony. "We actually see the Al Qaeda centres being resurgent in their role in planning operations," John Kringen, head of the CIA intelligence directorate, told the House (of Representatives) Armed Services Committee Wednesday. "They seem to be fairly well settled into the safe haven in the ungoverned spaces of Pakistan ... We see more training. We see more money. We see more communications." The five-page...

LAKHDARIA, Algeria (Reuters) - A truck bomb exploded at an Algerian army barracks on Wednesday, killing eight soldiers in the deadliest attack claimed by al Qaeda's north Africa wing since a triple suicide bombing in April. The blast in Lakhdaria village 120 km (75 miles) east of the capital in the troubled Kabylie region happened hours before the opening in Algiers of the All Africa Games, a prestigious sports event regarded as Africa's Olympics which Algeria is hosting. "I heard a terrible explosion," said the owner of a coffee shop in Lakhdaria, a settlement surrounded by forested mountains that have...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research suggests that an outbreak of wound and bloodstream infections among U.S. service members in Iraq was acquired at contaminated field hospitals, not on the battlefield. Army doctors noticed an increasing problem of infection with a drug-resistant microbe called Acinetobacter baumannii-calcoaceticus complex (ABC) among casualties being treated in Iraq. Acinetobacter bacteria are found in soil and water but usually cause no problem. In fact, it's quite common for people to carry the germ on their skin without any ill effects. However, with open wounds and reduced immunity there's an increased risk of ABC infections....

WASHINGTON - Intelligence analysts predicted, in secret papers circulated within the government before the Iraq invasion, that al-Qaida would see U.S. military action as an opportunity to increase its operations and that Iran would try to shape a post-Saddam Iraq. The top analysts in government also said that establishing a stable democracy in Iraq would be a "long, difficult and probably turbulent process." Democrats said the newly declassified documents, part of a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation released Friday, make clear that the Bush administration was warned about the very challenges it now faces as it tries to stabilize Iraq. "Sadly,...

WHTIE HOUSE (AP) - President Bush says the next few months will be critical for his troop buildup in Iraq. At a White House news conference today, the president said he expects heavy fighting in Iraq over the next few weeks and months and more American and Iraqi casualties. The president says the last five brigades of his troop buildup -- about 15,000 troops -- are scheduled to arrive in Baghdad next month. An Iraq funding bill currently before Congress will help pay for the president's troop buildup designed to secure Baghdad and other volatile areas. Bush says the measure...

The body of a U.S. soldier found in the Euphrates River in Iraq was identified Wednesday as a California man who was abducted with two comrades a week and a half ago, a relative said. Military officials told the family of Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr. of Torrance that a commanding officer identified the body, but that DNA tests were still pending. "They told us, 'We're sorry to inform you the body we found has been identified as Joe,'" said the soldier's aunt, Debbie Anzack. "I'm in disbelief."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi will present a plan to House Democrats for a war funding bill that won't include a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq but will feature benchmarks with consequences, according to Democratic leadership aides. The bill also would raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour from $5.15 per hour, and fund other domestic spending programs, which were still being negotiated. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said any talk of a deal was premature.

NEW YORK --A Florida doctor was convicted Monday of providing material support to terrorists by agreeing to treat injured al-Qaida fighters so they could return to Iraq to battle Americans. Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir, 52, was convicted in federal court in Manhattan after a three-week trial that featured testimony by him and Ali Soufan, an FBI agent who posed as an al-Qaida recruiter in a sting operation that led to four arrests. When the verdict was read, Sabir looked straight ahead. Later, as he was escorted from the courtroom, he waved to supporters, who said, "Stay strong." His lawyer, Ed...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two US army officers were relieved of command after an investigation found that three soldiers killed by insurgents in Iraq last year were left alone for 36 hours at an undermanned and unprotected observation point, army officials said Thursday. The June 16 attack, in which two of the soldiers were abducted and their mutilated bodies were found days later, has come under renewed scrutiny following the abduction of three other US soldiers during an insurgent attack this week. The investigation, which was completed last year but not released until Thursday, found a string of errors that exposed...

Joining us now is Dr. Joshua Perper, Broward County medical examiner. Doctor, good evening to you. Thank you for being with us tonight. DR. JOSHUA PERPER, BROWARD COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: You're welcome. MACCALLUM: Was your report ready to go? Were you ready to release the results? PERPER: Yes, I was. And the reason why I decided not to do so is because I was informed that there was some additional evidence, which I want to review before I have my final report. And that's the reason why my press conference is going to be delayed by a week or two.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - As a joint operation by US and Iraqi troops to take control of Baghdad begins to bear fruit, there were signs on Thursday that their insurgent foes are trying to counter them with deadly new tactics. Iraqi medics were treating patients poisoned by what is thought to be chlorine gas after attackers targeted civilian areas with trucks rigged as dirty bombs, said Qais Abdulwahab, director of the Kadhimiya Hospital. Meanwhile, US commanders are investigating the loss of the latest in a series of helicopters after a Blackhawk came down on Wednesday in fields north of the capital...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iranian patrol boats have increased attempts in the last week to assess defenses near Iraqi offshore oil terminals, U.S. military officials said Monday. The Iranian actions at the northern end of the Persian Gulf have been a subject of operational briefings for U.S. military personnel in recent days, the officials said. The officials -- who said they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter -- said that the United States does not see the Iranian moves as aggressive or provocative. The assessment is that the probes are part of an Iranian effort to raise its...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran on Monday rejected U.S. accusations that the highest levels of Iranian leadership have armed Shiite militants in Iraq with armor-piercing roadside bombs, a day after U.S. military officials in Baghdad said they had traced the weapons to Tehran. “Such accusations cannot be relied upon or be presented as evidence. The United States has a long history in fabricating evidence. Such charges are unacceptable,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters. The deadly and highly sophisticated weapons are known as “explosively formed penetrators,” or EFPs, which have killed more than 170 troops from the American-led coalition....

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Thunderous explosions and dense black smoke swirled through the center of Baghdad Monday when at least two car bombs — one parked in an underground garage — tore through a crowded marketplace, setting off dozens of secondary explosions and killing at least 71 people, police said. Another bombing nearby killed at least nine. The blasts shattered the city center on the first anniversary, according to the Muslim lunar calendar, of the bombing of the important Shiite Golden Dome shrine in Samarra. That attack by al-Qaida in Iraq militants set off the torrent of sectarian bloodletting that has...

WASHINGTON — Military officials say they are carefully monitoring gang activity in the services and don’t see any signs of an upswing of gang members among the ranks. Officials are aware of law enforcement reports and an Army Criminal Investigation Command report distributed late last year showing that gang-related incidents among soldiers nearly tripled from fiscal 2005 to fiscal 2006. “CID has included all of these incidents and investigations in this report because this is a threat assessment to protect the force,” said Chris Grey, chief of public affairs for Army CID. “We take that very seriously, and are reviewing...

BAGHDAD, Iraq: Gunmen burst into two houses belonging to a Sunni Muslim family northeast of Baghdad on Thursday, killing 14 relatives, police said. The attack occurred around 1 p.m. local time in the village of Rufayaat, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) east of Balad. Balad is a majority Shiite town 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of the Iraqi capital, but it is surrounded by territory that is mainly populated by Sunnis. At least 10 gunmen piled into two vehicles broke into the homes, then separated women and children from their male relatives. All 14 victims were men, ranging in age...

BAGHDAD: Two new helicopter crashes near Baghdad are the latest in a spate of downings that strongly suggest insurgents have adapted their tactics to make American helicopters more vulnerable and are now putting more effort toward shooting down U.S. aircraft, American officials say. Six American helicopters have crashed or been shot down in the past 19 days — including a Marine CH-46 Sea Knight transport on Wednesday, killing seven people — apparently the largest number of helicopters lost in such a short period since the invasion of Iraq. The recent rash of crashes indicates insurgents have become smarter about anticipating...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi security forces detained an aide to the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq in a raid early Thursday at a gas station south of Baghdad, state-run television and a security official said. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the aide to Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was one of two men arrested in the dawn raid. The two suspects ran a gas station in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, on behalf of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the official said, adding...

US and Iraqi forces in Baghdad have arrested the deputy health minister during a raid at his offices. The minister, Hakim al-Zamili, is a key member of the political group led by radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr. He is accused of aiding Shia militiamen and using ambulances to move weapons, a ministry source told the BBC. US and Iraqi troops have been trying to curb sectarian attacks in Iraq. The latest raid came as a car bomb killed at least 17 people south of Baghdad. A parked car bomb struck a market in the predominantly Shia town of Aziziya, also...